Should Christians Use Holy Anointing Oil?
Asher Chee |Today, many Christians believe that they should use holy anointing oil. However, there are some things that we need to consider.
1. The Purpose of Holy Anointing Oil
According to the Bible, holy anointing oil was only applied to the elements of the Tabernacle and to Aaron’s descendants in order to initiate them into the Old Covenant priesthood (Exod. 30:22–32). Other than that, there are no other legitimate uses for the holy anointing oil according to the Bible. Despite this, many Christians use holy anointing oil to anoint not just themselves and fellow believers, but also their possessions and other objects.
Also, the Old Covenant priests themselves did not get anointed with holy anointing oil ever again after their initiation. Yet, many Christians anoint themselves regularly with holy anointing oil.
Therefore, the way in which many Christians practice the use of holy anointing oil today is not according to what God revealed in the Bible.
2. Priesthood is Related to Covenant.
Some Christians reason that since Christians are priests in the New Covenant (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6), then Christians should apply holy anointing oil to themselves.
However, a New Covenant priest is not an Old Covenant priest, and vice versa. Old Covenant priests are exclusively descended from the line of Aaron. Jesus himself could not be an Old Covenant priest, since he was not descended from Aaron (Heb. 7:14).
Likewise, Christians are not Old Covenant priests. Therefore, it is not biblical for Christians to be anointed with holy anointing oil.
3. Anointing with Oil in the New Testament
Some Christians find support for the use of holy anointing oil from two passages in the New Testament:
- In Mark 6:13, Jesus’ disciples “cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them,” and
- in James 5:14, James advised sick Christians “Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”
However, the Greek word for “anoint” in these two passages is the verb aleiphō, which simply means to apply oil for common purposes, with no special or spiritual significance at all. Hence, those passages do not indicate that Christians should use holy anointing oil.
4. Unavailability of Holy Anointing Oil.
According to the Bible, holy anointing oil should not be replicated by anyone outside of the Old Covenant priestly administration (Exod. 30:32–33). This means that Jesus and the first Christians could not have used holy anointing oil, since they could not obtain any holy anointing oil in the first place!
This also means that the “holy anointing oil” which many Christians use today is not really holy anointing oil according to the Bible.